"A former nun is taking a big leap of faith, preparing to become the first female Catholic priest in Georgia.

“I've had a calling and I've known since I've been in the seventh grade,” Diane Dougherty told Channel 2’s Sophia Choi.

She'll be ordained this Sunday at Atlanta’s First Metropolitan Community Church by the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests.No Catholic church will have her, as it goes against the religion. Atlanta Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory said ordaining women “brings division and fractures unity in the church.”

“The Catholic Church has consistently taught that the church has no authority to confer priestly ordination on women since among his twelve apostles, Jesus Christ did not include any women in spite of his open association and friendship with women throughout his ministry,” he said in a statement to Choi.

But Dougherty is sticking to her guns.

“This is what people think, ‘If the pope says no, God will do what the pope says. And I’ve believed it my whole life, but I'll tell you, I've never been happier,” she said.

Two years ago, Channel 2 followed Dougherty to Florida when she was excommunicated from the church.

“It is extremely hurtful,” she said.

She plans to hold church in her own home. “We cannot do this to the next generation of Catholic girls,” she said."www.arcwp.org

"On Saturday, Diane Dougherty will defy centuries-old Roman Catholic tradition when she is ordained a priest in a ceremony that her church will neither recognize nor accept.Nevertheless, the first invitation she sent was to Atlanta Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory.She doesn’t expect him to attend.Dougherty is part of a controversial movement to ordain women as priests and deacons. The women are doing so despite the fact the church has said they will be automatically excommunicated, which means they will not be able to participate in any church sacraments...."

Bita Honarvar, bhonarvar@ajc.com

Diane Dougherty (right) worships at the First Metropolitan Community Church of Atlanta Sunday, Oct. 7, 2012.

“He won’t [attend] because of the pope andthis is a hierarchical institution,” said the 67-year-old former teacher and nun, who will be ordained by the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests. “I don’t know if he wants to attend, but he is a black man. He understands social justice. He’s a very sensitive and loving individual. I just can’t imagine he doesn’t have empathy, although he has written that he does not.”"In a statement, the archbishop stood firm, saying the church has no authority to ordain women as priests “since among His twelve Apostles, Jesus Christ did not include any women in spite of His open association and friendship with women throughout His ministry.” ..."Still, Dougherty plans to go ahead with the ordination at First Metropolitan Community Church in Atlanta. Another Georgian, Barbara Anne Duff of Macon, will be ordained a deacon....""The women claim valid orders because an unnamed bishop with apostolic succession ordained the first female bishops, said Bridget Mary Meehan, a bishop of the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests who will perform the ordination Saturday.""Dougherty, who is not registered in a parish, will initially preach in her Newnan home.So far, about 150 women globally have been declared priests or deacons, although the Vatican doesn’t recognize them.Priesthood means as a disciple, I stand with all people in the name of Christ, sharing the love of God,” Dougherty said. “And this is why this hurts. They say we can do ministry but can’t stand at the altar.”"The role of women is a big issue in the church, said Eugene Bianchi, a professor emeritus of religion at Emory University."“It’s a big shakeup in some ways,” he said. “There’s an element of power involved. The Catholic Church has been male, and all of a sudden you’re asking them to let women into the decision-making area of the church. They’re going to be resistant.”"Times, however, are changing," he said."As early as 2005, the year John Paul II died, a Gallup/CNN/USA Today poll showed a majority of U.S. Catholics, 55 percent, felt the next pope should allow women to be priests. Forty-four percent opposed the ordination of women..."www.arcwp.orgBridget Mary's ReflectionIn response to Archbishop Gregory of Atlanta's statement against women's ordination in the Catholic Church: Jesus did not ordain anyone at the Last Supper. The Twelve represented the twelve tribes of Israel. Jesus chose Mary of Magdala to be the apostle to the apostles. The Risen Christ appeared first to Mary, not Peter and called her to preach the first homily.she proclaimed the Good News of the Resurrection, the central doctrine of Christianity, to the disciples. There were more than 12 apostles. According to the New Testament, Paul, Andronicus and Junia, a woman, were apostles. See Romans 16:7. For 1200 years the church ordained thousands of women. The Vatican cannot continue to discriminate against women and blame God for it. What a cop out to say they have no authority! Bridget Mary Meehan, arcwp, www.arcwp.org

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

"When Paolo Gabriele wanted to talk about interesting things, they didn't let him," wrote Aldo Maria Valli, a respected Vatican journalist with Rai, the Italian state TV network. "These facts would have extremely interesting, because they show that Gabriele did not act as a solitary, slightly mad figure but as a conscious person living in an environment where this unease was shared by Vatican officials of the highest rank. .. "We have witnessed the extraordinary spectacle of a trial that has tried to hide rather than clarify," Valli wrote. "One must say with total candor that it was a political trial carried out for reasons of state."

"Here are some examplesfrom the scholarship of the Women Priests Website:

1. A fourth-century tombstone records the burial of
‘Guilia Runa, woman priest’. 2. Another inscription of the 5th century records the life of "Leta
Presbitera": "Sacred to her good memory. Leta the Presbyter lived 40 years, 8
months, 9 days, for whom her husband set up this tomb. She preceded him in peace
on the day before the Ides of May". The epitaph refers to a presbyter Leta,
having died at just over forty, for whom her husband had set up a tomb; this
inscription comes from the catacomb of Tropea, a small town that has offered the
most consistent epigraphical and monumental documentation of Paleochristian
Bruttium.Up to now many scholars have always construed the term presytera as
the ‘wife of the presbyter’. New evidence suggests that the Leta of the epigraph
of Tropea was a true and proper presbytera: that is, a woman who was
practising the sacerdotal ministry in the Christian community of Tropea. An
analysis of the archeological evidence, as well as literary evidence, including
Pope Gelasius’ letter (494 AD) and the
testimony of Bishop Atto of Vercelli (9th
cent.), has led Professor Giorgio Otranto to firmly conclude to the presence of
ministerial women priests in the South of Italy and Sicily.

"For Diane Dougherty, it is a way to live up to her calling and to challenge the hierarchy of the Catholic Church. It is a hierarchy that Dougherty maintains is sexist. Though not recognized by the Vatican, the Coweta County resident and longtime former nun will be ordained next week and will become the first female Catholic priest in Georgia.Dougherty on Oct. 20 will be ordained a priest in the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests (ARCWP) at a ceremony at First Metropolitan Community Church in Atlanta. Asked earlier this week at her home near Newnan if the ordination is valid, Dougherty said, “I’m being validly ordained in the line of Peter, but it is not recognized by the church hierarchy.” The ordination service will be performed by female bishop, Dougherty said. The woman who ordained the bishop had been ordained by a male bishop, though his name has not been released, Dougherty added..."

...."Dougherty maintains that archeological evidence has been found that women served as priests in France, the British Isles and in the Mediterranean area. Fast forward to today, Dougherty insists that she is not part of a breakaway or renegade group.“We are authentic women living out our gospel call within the Catholic Church. We stand as equals with all clergy through this ordination,” she said. “Sexism is now and always has been divisive. You cannot take half a religious denomination, make them second class, and say this is the will and intent of Jesus. The gospels and experience of the early church clearly indicate women have been called to full discipleship. There is historical and archeological evidence that verified women were priests and deacons for the first 1,200 years of its existence. That is also how long it took to make a hierarchy to say we never existed. Oppressed for the last 800 years, we are now rising up to say once again, we are here, we have been here and we will always be here, because God calls us all to be God’s presence on earth — both male and female.”Above all, Dougherty insists that she became a religious woman to answer God’s call and served in parishes, schools, archdioceses and other Catholic institutions.

“I have never left the church. When this opportunity arrived, I saw it as a fuller pathway of service,” she said. ”I am passionate about women called to be disciples. I hope to open doors within the Catholic tradition to allow this to happen.”www.arcwp.orgToday is the feast day of St. Teresa of Avila, a great reformer and Doctor of the Church. She'd be proud of our international movement to renew priestly ministry in a more open, inclusive, just church. Bridget Mary Meehan, arcwp

by requiring them
to treat all citizens, including their employees, equally?

Or, are these
institutions denying their employees their civil rights?

If
religious institutions take no money from government sources,

then these institutions can limit their benefits
package for employees

however they want
when they employ members of their faith.

If they do take
money from the government,

then they are
required to follow the stipulations

that accompany
that money.

The government
must represent and respect the rights of all citizens

and follow the
rulings of our judicial system.

If some of
those rulings are considered unjust or immoral,

appeals are
available through our judicial system.

Or, pass a new
law.

The USA is not,
and never was, a Christian nation.

The purpose,
mission, and parameters of a country

are contained in
its constitution,

and our
constitution does not establish a Christian nation.

In fact, the first
amendment distinctly and deliberately insists that

“Congress shall make no law respecting an
establishment of religion...”

Our founding
fathers had enough of European “Christendom”,

the marriage of
Church and State.

They wanted
nothing to do with it.

Some Muslim
nations are trying it again today

with predictable
negative results.

In terms of
contraceptive measures,

there is no civil
law against their use,

and according to
all polls,

most people in the
country use, have used, or will use

some form of
artificial contraceptive.

The Church can
condemn that usage,

exhort its members
not to use them,

even reject users
as members

but they can’t
force or expect the government

to enforce their beliefs.

The
government must follow the constitution

and the laws of
the land.

If we don’t
like a law,

then we can try to persuade people to change
it.

But we cannot
expect the government NOT to apply the law,

or condemn them
when they do enforce it.

· Specifically,
the Bishops have lost the battle against contraceptive use and
abortion. They can continue appealing to individual consciences but
the government must follow the constitution and law of the land.